Musician Gary Clark Jr. has released a new music video for “Pearl Cadillac,” the latest single to be released off his most recent album release This Land. The video, directed by Clément Oberto, was shot on 35 mm film stock, and shows Clark driving a vintage Cadillac Deville, across Los Angeles.
This song is a loving tribute to Clark’s mother, who own’s the aforementioned pearl white Cadillac that is shown in the video, and referenced in the song’s title. According to a recent interview with Louder Sound, this blue fusion track is both a nod to Prince, and an apology to his mother for being “a punkass kid, always sneaking out, stealing her car,[and] getting into trouble.”
This Land was noted for Clark’s effortless fusion of blues, rock, soul and R&B, that took a more political tone in its messaging. The title track confronts the racism and xenophobia experienced in this country during the era of Trump’s presidency.
As Clark explained in the interview with Louder Sound:
“Basically, what it comes down to is being black in America and growing up in the south of Texas. It’s an angry song. I’m not asking for acceptance any more. People were shackled to the bottom of boats, traded and sold, whipped and tortured, hanged for nothing. We built the farms and cotton fields and tobacco fields. So right now we are here through death and devastation, rape and pillage. We’re here now regardless of what we look like and where we come from. We are citizens. We should all have the right to make a living and to protect our family and not be bothered. That’s all there is to it.”
Clark appeared at Brooklyn’s Afropunk festival alongside FKA Twigs and Santigold.
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